How To Make A Color Coded Area On A Gps Display

[ibixable]

I am wondering if there is a way to make an area/areas of a map that is being displayed on a GPS unit to display as a color coded box. For example if we are going flying and know there is a no fly zone is it possible to create an overlay of some king to show this. I would also like to have 1/24k topo maps on a GPS unit for the region I am in is that possible. Then to top all this off we are given the flight restrictions a short time from when we fly so this needs to be a simi-easy process. The areas that would need to be coded could be entered as coordinates from a map for each corner maybe for an example then that data could be loaded to the GPS unit.

 

I have not purchased a GPS unit yet until I find out if this is possible but I like the Garmin units better at the moment.

 

I was speaking to a salesman at REI yesterday and he said that Garmin was comming out with the 1/24 topo maps for the US sometime later this year or early next year anybody else heard of this.

 

Thanks

[+thefiveofus]

well, one thought is that the 60 csx has a feature called 'proximity alarms' for the type of thing you describe below. You identify a waypoint and the radius distance. The GPS will then tell you when you cross that boundary defined by a constant distance from the waypoint (e.g. the circle defined w/ the radius you supplied).

 

However, the radius, as far as I can tell in a little experimenting, is *not* shown on the display, and the only shape proximity that can be defined is a circle. (the alarm works both ways, e.g. crossing outside the proximity, or crossing into it). I think Garmin's intention was a 'no fly' type of application. A red message appears on the screen, an audio tone sounds, and it needs to be acknowledged by pressing enter to remove the message (although I have not waited for it to time out to see what happens if not acknowledged).

 

they are fairly easy to use on the fly..define the waypoint and then enter the waypoint (select from list) and radius on the proximity alarm list page.

 

If there were permanent 'no fly' zones you wanted to see on your map, perhaps there would be a way to do this yourself (but then I believe you could not view your custom map layer and a topo map layer, for example, simultaneously).

 

you can download the garmin manuals on their site also...

 

re new topo maps, I can't say.

[kb9nvh]

A circle shows up on mine!! Proximity alarms are circles only as far as I know and it will do for most small airports but restricted airspace is sometimes not a circle but this is as good as it gets unless you buy and aviation unit (I asssume you dont want to spend the moola for one of those with the jeppson data base)

 

well, one thought is that the 60 csx has a feature called 'proximity alarms' for the type of thing you describe below. You identify a waypoint and the radius distance. The GPS will then tell you when you cross that boundary defined by a constant distance from the waypoint (e.g. the circle defined w/ the radius you supplied).

 

However, the radius, as far as I can tell in a little experimenting, is *not* shown on the display, and the only shape proximity that can be defined is a circle. (the alarm works both ways, e.g. crossing outside the proximity, or crossing into it). I think Garmin's intention was a 'no fly' type of application. A red message appears on the screen, an audio tone sounds, and it needs to be acknowledged by pressing enter to remove the message (although I have not waited for it to time out to see what happens if not acknowledged).

 

they are fairly easy to use on the fly..define the waypoint and then enter the waypoint (select from list) and radius on the proximity alarm list page.

 

If there were permanent 'no fly' zones you wanted to see on your map, perhaps there would be a way to do this yourself (but then I believe you could not view your custom map layer and a topo map layer, for example, simultaneously).

 

you can download the garmin manuals on their site also...

 

re new topo maps, I can't say.

[ibixable]

I am not opposed to buying the aviation unit if it will allow for what I am trying to do I spoke with Garmin tech support today and they did not know of a way to do it. I was thinking of trying to make an overlay that you can see throung like has been show for making a topo overlay but this may be too time consuming for what we want to do. Any more ideas would be great.

 

Ibix

[Hertzog]

You should be able to create your restricted zones as tracks in MapSource and then save these to the GPS as saved tracks. You can have up to 20 saved tracks stored in the GPS and select which ones you want to display at flight time; but you wouldn't be able to modify them on the GPS, so unless you knew ahead of time all the possible restrictions you would need to have a laptop handy to do last minute modifications. Saved tracks can be color coded, but they will show up as outlines of the zone (i.e. not filled).

 

Regarding the 24K map availabliltiy, I would be pleasantly surprised to see this happen, but don't count on it! But I would think for flying purposes the 100K maps would do the trick.

[kb9nvh]

The aviation unit I had (lowrance airmap 100) had the Jeppson database and already had restricted airspaces included. Unless you are talking about adding the new ones that pop up all the time now since 9-11..

 

I am not opposed to buying the aviation unit if it will allow for what I am trying to do I spoke with Garmin tech support today and they did not know of a way to do it. I was thinking of trying to make an overlay that you can see throung like has been show for making a topo overlay but this may be too time consuming for what we want to do. Any more ideas would be great.

 

Ibix

[Hertzog]

The aviation unit I had (lowrance airmap 100) had the Jeppson database and already had restricted airspaces included. Unless you are talking about adding the new ones that pop up all the time now since 9-11..

I don't know much about the relative merits of the various aviation units, but a friend of mine has the GPSMAP 396 and really likes it. Also uses it for car navigation. I agree, if I wanted one for flying I would definitely get one of the aviation units.